A sincere thank you to all of you who have submitted your applications to the EmiratesGBC 2016 Awards, we wish you good luck and look forward to announcing the winners during the Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner taking place at the Murooj Rotana Hotel in Dubai on 18 May 2016.

Save the Date! Reserve your early bird seat or table for the biggest event in the green building industry calendar by registering on the Awards Gala website today – an early bird discount applies until 18 April 2016.

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Terri Wills, CEO of World Green Building Council, as well as other MENA Green Building Councils and local government will join us on the night.

For sponsorship opportunities please click here to access our 2016 packages. The 2016 EmiratesGBC Awards are audited by KPMG. Thank you to the Awards Silver Sponsors, Dow Chemical and Brookfield Multiplex, for their continuous support.

In March, EmiratesGBC proudly held its first building tour of the year at the spectacular, newly opened Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Center in Al Ain. Open only to EmiratesGBC members, the building tour included a presentation on the attributes of the Estidama 5-Pearl center followed by a Q&A supported by Abu Dhabi UPC. A special thanks to Dr. Amer Almadidy for facilitating and the team at the SZDLC for the warm hospitality extended to our members. Also thank you to Jason Mooney and the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council.

If you are interested in using EmiratesGBC office space for a workshop or meeting,  please get in touch with us at 04 3468244 or send us an email to office@emiratesgbc.org. The room is fully equipped with AV and provides a nice environment for focused meetings or training workshops.

EmiratesGBC’s first joint MEFMA event of the year was held on Wednesday April 6^th from 8:30am-11:30am at Manzil Downtown Dubai. Entitled From Supper to Site: Rethinking Waste, the morning networking session included an engaging two hour seminar on food and construction waste. Both panels encouraged industry professionals to participate and learn from others about the current situation with waste, proposed various possible solutions that could be implemented, and acknowledged several barriers. A brief of the content discussed can be found here.

Emirates Green Building Council is pleased to announce its recent initiative to further educate the industry and community by sharing green building tips through an online toolkit.  The toolkit is being developed with the objective to provide relevant information on green buildings that can be incorporated into the EmiratesGBC website and communicated to those of various levels of technical capacity.

EmiratesGBC is currently seeking committed partners to support its toolkit.  The Green Building Toolkit will be available for thousands of individuals and businesses to use to assist them with decisions to make their homes, offices or schools more efficient and sustainable.

The Emirates Green Building Council will promote the Green Building Toolkit through its website, newsletter, press release, events, social media and through email announcements to both its membership and non-membership database.  We invite you to partner with us for an initial 2-year or 1-year period, and support EmiratesGBC to extend its reach promoting green building practices.

To gain more information on the sponsorship opportunity for the EmiratesGBC Green Building Toolkit, please contact Tara Tariq at tara.tariq@emiratesgbc.org or at 04-3468244.

EmiratesGBC is teaming up with the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce for a Focus Day on Monday April 25^th from 8:30 – 13:00. As nZEBS are increasingly becoming part of the green building industry discourse in the UAE, this event seeks to explore what the ‘n’ in nZEB stands for and takes an in depth look at one area of efficiency, traditionally seen as the lowest hanging fruit: insulation. RSVP today: events@emiratesgbc.org

EmiratesGBC would like to thank its members, Griffin Consultants, DSA Architects International, CH2M, PeoPla Green Technologies and BK Gulf for submitting their pledges to support the UAE Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) submission to COP21 to increase the clean energy to 24% of the total energy mix by 2021.

The above members who submitted pledges have received a tailored measurement and verification form to be filled and submitted to EmiratesGBC every 6 months. As part of EmiratesGBC’s commitment, we will measure and verify their pledges to support the UAE INDC commitment to COP21.

Corporate members can still submit pledges to support the UAE commitment to COP21! Visit our website or send an email to enagagement@emiratesgbc.org.

EmiratesGBC held its first ever town hall style workshop for its Energy Efficiency Program (EEP) members on Tuesday March 29^th.  The discourse was facilitated by Etihad ESCO CEO, Stephane Le Gentil.

The event was attended by a diverse range of EEP members including ESCOs, suppliers, manufacturers, consultants and FMCs. During the workshop, participants highlighted the challenges for retrofitting existing residential buildings in Dubai including tenant/owner complex relationship and scattered markets. Solutions were thoroughly discussed to overcome these challenges. Discussions also ranged from suggestions to facilitate the financing and to leverage the non-low-hanging fruit energy efficiency measures (insulation, window replacement, etc..). The event served as an effective platform for Energy Efficiency Program members to network within an industry-focused environment.

Last month, Insinkerator’s state-of-the-art Waste Collection System won the Best New Foodservice Innovation award. They were also honored to be one of the finalists for Best New Catering Equipment Innovation Award, Best Environmental Sustainability Initiative Award and Best Sustainable Catering Equipment Innovation Award.

In March, the EmiratesGBC Technical Workshop featured internal comfort through best practices in ventilation design. Participants were kept engaged with up to date highlights on the parameters that affect indoor thermal comfort, and the innovative ventilation strategies and techniques that are used to mitigate indoor discomfort.

The topic and date/time for the April Technical Workshop will be shared shortly.

If your company has a sustainable specialty/technology which can be introduced to other industry members in an interactive and educational workshop format, please let us know! In the past, our topics have run the gamut of the sustainability spectrum, and we welcome the diverse expertise among our members.  Email your topic suggestions to: technicalworkshops@emiratesgbc.org

Technical Workshops are open to EmiratesGBC members and partners only and subject to limited seating. Please be sure to register your participation early.

Is this newsletter reaching everyone in your organization who would benefit from reading it? If not, please ask your colleagues to sign up to receive this newsletter directly to their inbox once a month by clicking here.

We want to showcase our EmiratesGBC Members and Partners.  We invite you to share with us your recent achievements and recognitions of awards, innovative methods, technologies, and services.  Those selected will be featured in our monthly newsletter.  Please contact us at office@emirtesgbc.org.

Emirates Green Building Council has recently linked up with Business Review Middle East and Construction Digital magazines to produce an editorial feature on the Emirates Green Building Council celebrating our 10-year anniversary.  With this comes an exclusive opportunity for EmiratesGBC corporate members to be profiled, at no cost, showcasing your business activities, services, etc. in the form of a company report.

We believe this is a great opportunity for members to promote the green building industry and to showcase their business and commitment to sustainability. Contact engagement@emiratesgbc.org for more information or to take part in this publication offer.

Green Key has just agreed on new criteria for its six categories that will be in force from 1 July 2016. Through the new criteria, Green Key has the potential to contribute directly or indirectly to the achievement of all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The new Green Key criteria also focus on CSR related issues, such as job creation, local community engagement, equal opportunities for all (including vulnerable groups) etc. and many of these issues are included in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The full document describing Green Key’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals can be downloaded here.

We invite all UAE hotel properties to contact greenkey@emiratesgbc.org should they want to receive more information on the Green Key criteria and how to get certified

The Energy Trilemma Index, produced in partnership with global management consultancy Oliver Wyman, along with the Global Risk Centre of its parent Marsh & McLennan Companies, is a comparative ranking of 130 countries, benchmarking the sustainability of energy systems and awarding countries with a balance score, highlighting how well countries manage the trade-offs between the three trilemma goals. Together with its companion, the World Energy Trilemma report, the Index proves an effective tool to assist policymakers as they set climate and development goals, businesses as they set their medium and long-term strategies and investors.

The Index also includes a ‘watch list’, highlighting countries that are expected to display significant changes in trilemma performance over the next few years, in light of recent policy changes, unscheduled incidents or undealt with structural issues. In 2015, South Africa and the US join Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK on negative watch, whilst the Philippines and Serbia are put on positive watch, alongside Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

Have you had the chance to look at our online Academy page? You’ll find there a series of articles, research papers, case studies, standards and regulations… as well as information on our Technical Guidelines.  Is something missing? Let us know and we’ll fix it!

The second edition of IRENA’s global Renewable Energy Roadmap – REmap – shows how the world can double the share of renewable energy in the energy mix within this timeframe, reducing global CO₂ emissions from energy use as much as 35%. Click here to access the full report.

On Tuesday March 1^st, Saeed Al Abbar, EmiratesGBC Chairman, and Mr. Faisal Al Nuaimi, General Manager of Ajman Tourism Development Department, signed an MoU that officialises cooperation to green the hospitality industry in the Emirate of Ajman. This cooperation entails raising awareness among hoteliers and tourism professionals through meetings and workshops, guiding the authorities with their hotel classification, identifying the potential for sharing best practices through the EmiratesGBC Benchmarking program, and encouraging properties to become eco-certified.

Caption from left to right:

Hamda Al Matrooshi – Head Of strategic Office
Yamina Aoucher – Director of Marketing & Development Department
Faisal Al Nuaimi – GM of ATDD
Ahmed Al Mahmood – Strategic Planning unit section head
Saeed Al Abbar – EmiratesGBC Chairman
Lora Shrake – EmiratesGBC Operations Director
Marie Westholm-Knebel – EmiratesGBC

TFG Asset Management released in March its white paper “Hoteliers’ Guide to Going Green” for which EmiratesGBC provided insights from the experience gained through Green Key and its Energy Efficiency and Hospitality Programs.

As part of their benefits, Corporate and Individual Members are invited to take part actively in the EmiratesGBC Programs’ content development. Should you be interested and available to volunteer some of your time, we are looking for support in the following:

• Green Key Program: auditors to review the hotels’ performances including documentation review and onsite visits. Contact greenkey@emiratesgbc.org
• Hospitality Program – industry experts to support the development of training modules: content peer-review. Contact info@emiratesgbc.org
• Energy Efficiency Program – industry experts will be selected based on their qualifications and experience in energy efficiency and building retrofit technologies. Contact eep@emiratesgbc.org

Each month, EmiratesGBC will add a new section in its newsletter for Jobs/Internship opportunities to help our Members and Partners find suitable candidates and to help match qualified students with career-developing experience.

We are inviting our members to share their employment opportunities with us! Please send an email to engagement@emiratesgbc.org.

EmiratesGBC is hiring!  We are looking for a dynamic and motivated individual fluent in both English and Arabic who is interested in contributing to sustainability of the built environment. The qualified candidate will joining the EmiratesGBC office team as its new Communications & Engagement Officer.  Click here to view the job description or to submit your application.

EmiratesGBC offers a series of professional training programs in partnership with British University in Dubai (BUiD). The following courses are scheduled to take place in the first half of 2016. For more information and to register your intent for any of our upcoming courses, please contact our education partner BUiD.

 Based on growing demand, the Certified Energy Auditor (CEA) certification developed by the Association of Energy Engineers is now offered through the EmiratesGBC-BUiD training program. A staple on the EmiratesGBC training calendar, the Certified Energy Manager (CEM) training will be held on May 29 – June 1 in Abu Dhabi.  The CEM qualification is aimed toward engineers and architects working in the areas of energy engineering or energy management. The exam will be held on June 2^nd.

On April 15-16, a two-day LEED Green Associate exam preparatory course will equip participants with an up-to-date understanding of the most current green building principles and practices.  On May 13-14, the two-day LEED Accredited Professional (BD+C) exam preparatory course is geared for professionals participating in the design and construction phases of high-performance, healthful, durable, affordable, and environmentally sound commercial, institutional, and high-rise residential buildings.

The first LuxLive Middle East conference & exhibition is the most talked about lighting event in the region with 3,000 key decision makers from across the Middle East set to convene in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 13-14 April 2016 for this free-to-attend event. Under the Patronage of H.E. Eng. Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, UAE along with support from the Society of Light & Lighting (SLL) and Middle East Lighting Association (MELA) and Emirates Green Building Council, the event will feature engaging talks, demos, panel discussions and interactive content sessions plus exciting new products showcased by world’s leading lighting brands. To pre-register for a free pass, visit www.luxlive.ae.

Cityscape Abu Dhabi will be held on 12 – 14 April 2016 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, UAE. Widely regarded as the key barometer for the region’s property sector, Cityscape Abu Dhabi acts as a platform for developers, investors, real estate professionals and government entities to meet and do business. With hundreds of developments from Abu Dhabi and overseas being showcased, Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2016 is the home of real estate investment for the residential, retail, hospitality and commercial sectors. Visit the event to learn more about the real estate sector in Abu Dhabi and beyond. Register your visit now, bit.ly/1TYCyBb.

The 4th Annual District Cooling (DC) Stakeholders Summit 2016 on April 19-20th is bringing together leading DC industry practitioners who have grown the market to what it is today along with solution providers who will showcase their expertise in the DC industry. Click here to register.

The Smart Building Automation Summit 2016 taking place on 26- 27 April, 2016 in Dubai endeavors to create a platform for the building automation industry to collaborate to discuss, debate and deliberate upon the key contextual influences, barriers of the industry and the opportunities on offer in the Middle East region. The summit will see detailed discussions by the domain experts to find viable solutions to the deterrents and chart the way forward for the industry. EmiratesGBC members can receive a 10% discount. Click here to register.

The Middle East has witnessed a spurt in the rise of ultra-tall buildings. Based on a recent report, Dubai boasts of the sixth best skyline in the world, ahead of cities like Chicago and Shanghai. Against this backdrop, the 3rd Annual Smart Skyscrapers Summit, under the patronage of Dubai Municipality and supported by Dubai Supreme Council of Energy will be held on 16 and 17 May at Sofitel the Palm. Click here to register.